Mila Nejad
Professor Bruce M. Wilson
POS 2041
31 May 2019
The United States has a two- party system in which seats are elected into congress in
order to balance the influence each side has. This allows citizens to freely voice concerns
regarding the government system while not creating needless third parties that would never come
close to meeting the vote of the majority. The main concern with a two-party system is that a
third third party group would need to receive a substantial amount of the vote to come close to
even competing with the main parties, which isn’t likely to happen.(Textbook) The two-party
system allows for each group to freely express their concerns and desires with one another while
still functioning in a majority “winner take all” vote in the case of presidency and bills passing.
The two-party system aims to properly represent each side of the citizens collective voice and
present their requests for reform within the congress system. There needs to be a system of
checking and balancing for a system such as this which is why there are political parties created
in order to ensure the proper people are getting elected into office.
Political parties ensure the right people are voicing the opinions of the citizens they are
representing. Political parties also place checks on the opposing party to ensure that they don’t
get too much power. They can publicly criticize the decisions made by the president or any other
party member of the opposing side to ensure they aren’t making choices that don’t take into
consideration the opposing viewpoint. This leads to a functioning system which not only allows
for everyone to freely voice their concerns, but also a system that checks itself to ensure an
imbalance of power doesn’t arise. Political parties additionally are responsible for informing the
public on the most relevant issues for them to form an opinion before the next vote. This allows
both sides to be informed on what is currently happening within the government and gives the
citizens a chance to consider options before elections or any other circumstances. The system of
checks and balances for political parties is interest groups which form within the groups of
citizens in order to properly voice their opinions as individuals.
Interest groups form in order to voice specific problems within citizen groups. Events
such as the Boston Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street are good examples of how interest groups
voice their opinion to political parties.(Textbook) When the people within a society begin to act
in a way to get the attention of political parties above them, whether it be through riots, social
media, or public declarations. Interest groups form freely and can voice their opinions on any
topic whether it already be relevant or just being brought into the light. This allows for the public
to freely participate in political party notifying and requesting while not crossing any lines that
would be against the opposing party.
These systems of checks and balances work together to form a proper functioning twoparty system within the United States. Seats divided within congress to appropriately represent
the majority while not diminishing any value from the voice of the lesser heard. The two -party
system does in turn still only leave two groups with values for people to choose from when it
comes to governmental concerns, which does leave out smaller minority third party concerns that
aren’t of enough concern to warrant a group large enough to cause the change, however, it does
allow for the majority of people to voice their issues and have solutions to what are essentially
the ‘most important’ issues in terms of majority. Each party can be criticized by the opposing
party regarding any action they take and interest groups can arise to attempt and sway political
parties in their direction so there is a decent system of checks and balances within the two-party
system.